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Cybergoose
Everyone in the family played at least two instruments. Dan picked up guitar and trumpet at the age of nine. "My mom played classical music in the kitchen while my Dad played more country and oldies in the living room," Dan recalls. In high school, he played upright bass and trumpet in orchestra. He played guitar in jazz bands and began teaching at a local music store. He also played in a blues band called, "The Wonder Brothers," on weekends. Seeing Stevie Ray Vaughan in concert was a major turning point for Dan. It was then and there he knew what he wanted to do with his life and career.
He played blues and country, but also took jazz very seriously and got a scholarship to a music college to study jazz guitar. "Getting a degree in music also required me to study and perform classical guitar, which got my right hand very involved in my playing," Dan explains.
At this point he started to combine jazz, country and blues music and to check out artists like Danny Gatton, Bela Fleck, Brent Mason and Albert LeeHe. He'd always listened to Jimmy Hendrix and rock and roll of course, but his heart was in the art music of the day that combined elements for a new sound.
While attending college at Bowling Green State University in northern Ohio, he became a faculty member at Findlay University during his senior year. He taught guitar at the college level and continued to learn more about the business of music. He enjoyed teaching and learned a lot in college, including getting his pilot's license.
Dan felt the need to move to another area and drove his dodge to Nashville to check it out. He mingled and met many of the people he'd been listening too, like members of the Allman Brothers Band, Neville Brothers and Larry Carlton. He knew Nashville was his next home. "I gave away everything I owned but my guitars and clothes," Dan explained. "When I first came here I played for tips at coffee shops as I learned my way around the business. Soon I was doing occasional sessions and free-lance work. One night I walked into 3rd and Lindsley, which was my favorite spot here in town, and saw Goose Creek Symphony, who I had never seen before. I was struck by the arrangements and chordal impressions that I thought no one else was doing and I was blown away. It sounded like a mini big-band playing art rock and roll/ folk songs with an orchestral flair gone bluegrass. I told myself that must be the coolest band to play for."
A few months later, he met the guitar player for Johnny Neel who in turn introduced him to Sid Walker, who played fiddle for Goose Creek at the time. Sid told Charlie Gearheart about Dan and he was auditioned and hired. After a year and a half of working as one of Goose Creek Symphony's lead guitarists, (he was just 22 when he joined) he went on to play with Johnny Neel. He also started a computer business trading commodities and making and selling cheesecake. Now he's reunited with the boys in the symphony and says he's glad to be back.